Is the NSC Dead? | America Is Becoming Less Ready for Natural Disasters | How America Lost Control of the Seas | Harvard Derangement Syndrome, and more

A Swedish MMA Tournament Spotlights the Trump Administration’s Handling of Far-Right Terrorism  (Ali Winston, Wired)
A member of a California-based fight club seems to have attended an event hosted by groups with ties to an organization the US government labeled a terrorist group. Will the Trump administration care?
While the Trump administration carries out a mass deportation campaign against undocumented immigrants allegedly involved with “terrorist” organizations and targets foreign students with granular social media surveillance, at least one American member of a neo-Nazi fight club has connected with a group linked to a far-right Scandinavian organization listed by the United States Treasury Department as a terrorist group.
In September 2024, at least one American affiliated with the “Active Club” movement—a transnational alliance of far-right fight clubs that closely overlap with skinhead gangs and neo-fascist political movements—appears to have traveled to Borås, Sweden, to participate in a mixed-martial-arts tournament with members of other affiliated fight clubs from across Europe. Social media posts from Tvåsaxe and GYM XIV, the Swedish skinhead organizations that hosted Holmgang 2024, claim that at least one member from the Southern California Active Club was in attendance. Photographs of the tournament were also published online by Media 2 Rise, the American ACs’ media wing.

Germany’s Federal Police Chief Warns of Right-Wing Extremist Youth Groups  (Tagesschau)
The President of the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, warns of an increase in criminal right-wing extremist youth scenes. “For about a year now, we have increasingly seen very young people with right-wing views becoming more radicalized and joining together in sometimes well-organized structures to commit serious crimes,” Münch told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers. The internet is increasingly serving as a networking space for the right-wing scene. “Radicalization, recruitment and mobilization take place via social networks and right-wing forums,” Münch continued. According to him, the high number of right-wing motivated crimes and the quality of right-wing violent crimes are a “major challenge” for the security authorities. They were facing the scene with high control pressure.

Already Several Proceedings Against Young Neo-Nazis  ((Tagesschau)
Several members of the radical right-wing terrorist group “Letzte Verteidigungswelle”, which was broken up on Wednesday, had apparently already been in the investigators’ sights for some time. Several cases are pending against Jason R. and Benjamin H. from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, some of which involve politically motivated crimes. The federal prosecutor’s office accuses both of them of being ringleaders in the radical right-wing terrorist group “Letzte Verteidigungswelle”. NDR and WDR have asked the defendants’ lawyers for a statement, but they have not responded. The 18-year-old Jason R., who was arrested by police in Wismar, is also currently under investigation for a break-in at a zoo. He is said to have broken in with other offenders. According to the zoo’s own statement, employees subsequently found a dead goat with stab wounds in its stomach in a stream. According to earlier reports, several rabbits and guinea pigs had also been stolen, some of which also died. The specific role R. played in these crimes is still being investigated.

U-Haul Bans Patriot Front Members After Trucks Rented in KC for March  (Judy L. Thomas, Kanss City Star)
U-Haul International took swift action against members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front who rented its trucks to transport those participating in a march Saturday in downtown Kansas City, the company said Tuesday.

Official Who Posted Antisemitic Rhetoric Becomes Pentagon Press Secretary  (JTA)
Kingsley Wilson, a Department of Defense official who has repeatedly echoed antisemitic rhetoric online, will serve as the Pentagon’s new press secretary, according to an announcement Friday. “Kingsley’s leadership has been integral to the DoD’s success & we look forward to her continued service to President Trump!,” said Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman and a senior advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a post on X Friday.

Veterans Recoil at Trump Plan to End Afghans’ Deportation Protection  (Abigail Hauslohner and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, Washington Post)
The administration claims conditions in Afghanistan have markedly improved under Taliban rule. Those who fought in the war say that’s “laughable.”

THE LONG VIEW

Like Many Populist Leaders, Trump Accuses Judges of Being Illegitimate Obstacles to Safety and Democracy  (Michael Gregory, The Conversation)
Federal judges and at times Supreme Court justices have repeatedly challenged – and blocked – President Donald Trump’s attempts to reshape fundamental aspects of American government.
Many of Trump’s more than 150 executive orders, including one aimed at eliminating the Department of Education, have been blocked by injunctions and lawsuits.
When a majority of Supreme Court justices ruled on May 16, 2025, that the Trump administration could not deport a group of Venezuelan immigrants without first giving them the right to due process in court, Trump attacked the court.
“The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This is a bad and dangerous day for America!” he continued in the post.
As the Trump administration faces other orders blocking its plans, the president and his team are framing judges not just as political opponents but as enemies of democracy.
Trump, for example, has called for the impeachment of James Boasberg, a federal judge who also issued orders blocking the deportation of immigrants in the U.S. to El Salvador. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that Boasberg was “trying to protect terrorists who invaded our country over American citizens,” and Trump has also called Boasberg and other judges who ruled against him or his administration “left-wing activists.”
“We cannot allow a handful of communist, radical-left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that belong solely to the president of the United States,” Trump said at a rally in April 2025. “Judges are trying to take away the power given to the president to keep our country safe.”
As a scholar of legal and political theory, I believe this kind of talk about judges and the judicial system is not just misleading, it’s dangerous. It mirrors a pattern seen across many populist movements worldwide, where leaders cast independent courts and judges as illegitimate obstacles to what they see as the will of the people.
By confusing the idea that the people’s will must prevail with what the law actually says, these leaders justify intimidating judges and their sound legal rulings, a move that ultimately undermines democracy.

Is the NSC Dead?  (Rishi Iyengar and John Haltiwanger,Foreign Policy)
Trump guts the Biden administration’s most powerful foreign-policy advisory body.

How America Lost Control of the Seas  (Arnav Rao, The Atlantic)
Thanks to decades of misguided policy choices, the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity.

The U.S. Military Needs to Relearn Nuclear Signaling  (Philip Sheers, Foreign Policy)
A more flexible force can be a stronger deterrent in a crisis.

National Security Council Staff Will Be Cut by Half  (Maggie Haberman and Erica L. Green, New York Times)
The drastic restructuring, revealed by Marco Rubio, the acting national security adviser, is likely to encourage the president’s preferred style of top-down decision-making in foreign affairs.

Crypto Has Become the Ultimate Swamp Asset  (Economist)
An industry that dreamed of being above politics has become synonymous with self-dealing.
When offered a Boeing 747 by the government of Qatar to replace Air Force One, President Donald Trump responded: why not? Only someone dumb would turn down free money. No presidency has generated so many conflicts of interest at such speed in modern history. Yet the worst self-dealing in American politics is found not on a runway but on blockchains, home to trillions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.
Over the past six months crypto has taken on a new role at the center of American public life. Several cabinet officials have large investments in digital assets. Crypto enthusiasts help run regulatory agencies. The industry’s largest businesses are among the biggest donors to election campaigns, with exchanges and issuers deploying hundreds of millions to defend friendly legislators and to crush their opponents. The president’s sons tout their crypto ventures around the world. The biggest investors in Mr. Trump’s meme coin get to have dinner with the president. The holdings of the first family are now worth billions, making crypto possibly the largest single source of its wealth.

Trump Allies Look to Benefit from Pro Bono Promises by Elite Law Firms  (Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Matthew Goldstein, Maggie Haberman, and Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times)
Veterans, in particular, are seeking free legal work from firms that cut deals with the White House like Skadden, Kirkland & Ellis and Paul Weiss.

ASSAULT ON SCIENCE

Harvard Derangement Syndrome  (Steven Pinker, New York Times)
In my 22 years as a Harvard professor, I have not been afraid to bite the hand that feeds me. So I’m hardly an apologist for my employer when I say that the invective now being aimed at Harvard has become unhinged. According to its critics, Harvard is a “national disgrace,” a “woke madrasa,” a “Maoist indoctrination camp,” a “ship of fools,” a “bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment,” a “cesspool of extremist riots” and an “Islamist outpost” in which the “dominant view on campus” is “destroy the Jews, and you’ve destroyed the root of Western civilization.”
And that’s before we get to President Trump’s opinion that Harvard is “an Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institution,” a “Liberal mess” and a “threat to Democracy,” which has been “hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called future leaders.”
This is not just trash talk. On top of its savage slashing of research funding across the board, the Trump administration has singled out Harvard to receive no federal grants at all. Not satisfied with these punishments, the administration just moved to stop Harvard from enrolling foreign students and has threatened to multiply the tax on its endowment as much as fifteenfold, as well as to remove its tax-free nonprofit status.
Call it Harvard Derangement Syndrome. 

Trump’s War on Harvard Is Bizarre — and Incredibly Damaging  (Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post)
Trump is wrecking American competitiveness.
When historians write about the challenges to America’s global hegemony, they will point to the rise of China, the first full-fledged peer competitor to the United States in decades. They will also note the return of Russia and its efforts to disrupt the American-led security order in Europe. These are familiar patterns in the rise and fall of world powers. What is new and surprising is that these challenges, far from uniting America, have turned it on itself, with its government tearing down many of the crucial elements of its extraordinary success.
Consider the Nature Index, perhaps the most comprehensive guide to high-quality research in the sciences. It tracks contributions to the world’s leading academic journals. Its newest rankings show what scientists already know: China is leaping ahead. Of the top 10 academic institutions in the Nature Index, nine are Chinese. But still sitting in the topmost position on that list is an American institution: Harvard. And it is this university that President Donald Trump is trying to destroy.
Around four decades ago, when I thought about applying to American universities from India, I was impressed by their reputation in research and teaching. But I was also attracted by the idea of America, a truly free and open society, one that welcomed people from around the world and where, in Ronald Reagan’s words, “our origins matter less than our destinations.” In a competitive world, where other countries have caught up in so many ways, this is still America’s unique advantage — if we can cherish rather than destroy it.

White House Health Report Included Fake Citations  (Dani Blum and Maggie Astor, New York Times)
A report on children’s health released by the Make America Healthy Again Commission referred to scientific papers that did not exist.

Demand for American Degrees Is Sinking  (Economist)
Trump’s war on universities could drive away America’s brightest import.

16 States Sue Trump Over $1.4 Billion in Science Cuts  (Benjamin Weiser and Katrina Miller, New York Times)
A group of attorneys general, led by Letitia James of New York, argues that National Science Foundation programs are critical for leading in science and technology.

Pausing Foreign Applications to U.S. Universities Is a Terrible Idea  (Economist)
The Trump administration hobbles a great American export.

Trump’s Crackdown on Foreign Student Visas Could Derail Critical AI Research  (Will Knight et al., Wired)
The US says it will “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas and has paused interviews for all student visa applicants. Experts warn the moves could weaken American leadership in STEM.

Republican Lawmakers and Agriculture Groups Question MAHA Report  (Maya C. Miller, New York Times)
The G.O.P. chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees said they were “troubled” by the Make America Healthy Again Commission’s findings and urged it to use sounder science.

Watch Out: America Is Becoming Less Ready for Natural Disasters  (Editorial Board, Washington Post)
The president is destroying programs that help communities prepare for climate effects.

The EPA Will Likely Gut Team That Studies Health Risks from Chemicals  (Molly Taft, Wired)
Reorganizations at the EPA may get rid of the agency’s fundamental program for research around the risks of toxic chemicals.

Dismantling NOAA Threatens the World’s Ability to Monitor Carbon Dioxide Levels  (Eric Morgan and Ralph Keeling, Wired)
The agency maintains the global backbone of measurements of CO2 and other gases, but these are at risk of being curtailed if the foreshadowed cuts to NOAA are realized.

Trump Administration Plans to End Greenhouse Gas Limits on Power Plants  (Tobi Raji, Washington Post)
Climate experts say the proposal prevents the U.S.— the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases — from averting catastrophic climate change.

RFK Jr. Says He May Bar Scientists from Publishing in Top Medical Journals  (Niha Masih and Amy B Wang, Washington Post)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took aim at reputed journals such as the Lancet and said his agency will create “in-house” publications instead.

MORE PICKS

Trump’s Visa Crackdown Plunges 275,000 Chinese Students into Uncertainty  (Kim Bellware and Angie Orellana Hernandez, Washington Post)
Chinese students make up nearly up nearly a quarter of all international students in the United States. Here’s who they are and what they’re studying.

FEMA Has Canceled Its 4-Year Strategic Plan Ahead of Hurricane Season  (Molly Taft and Vittoria Elliott, Wired)
Multiple FEMA employees tell WIRED that they did not know of another time when a strategic plan was rescinded without another in place.

Checks on Migrant Children by Homeland Security Agents Stir Fear  (Miriam Jordan and Christina Jewett, New York Times)
Agents are showing up unannounced to interview minors in what the government calls “wellness checks.” Critics see the visits as part of the immigration crackdown.

How Much Worse Could America’s Measles Outbreak Get?  (Economist)
Our charts show how falling vaccination rates could lead to a surge in cases.

US Gun Trafficking to Mexico: Independent Gun Shops Supply the Most Dangerous Weapons  (Sean Campbell and Topher L. McDougal, The Conversation)
U.S. independent firearm businesses are the largest suppliers of crime guns bought in the U.S. and trafficked to Mexico.
We are a professor of economic development and an investigative journalist. We have spent a year sifting through documents and datasets during our investigation of gun trafficking to Mexico and its effects. We built a dataset of trafficked weapons linked to 100 U.S. court cases. We combined this with leaked records of crime guns that were seized by authorities in Mexico from 2018 to 2020 and traced back to gun dealers in the U.S. by the ATF.

Gun Trafficking from the US to Mexico: The Drug Connection  (Sean Campbell and Topher L. McDougal, The Conversation)
Illegal firearm trafficking is inseparable from the illegal drug trade: Weapons are often bought with drug money, can strengthen cartels and can be traded for drugs.